Associate, Strategic Investment Fund at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
$2.5 billion strategic investment fund seeks Associate with sell-side/buy-side experience and belief in the mission of helping all people lead healthy, productive lives.
Location: Seattle
Timeline: Two-year position
Start Date: January 2020 or earlier
Opportunity
In 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established a strategic investment fund with the mandate to use equity, debt and guarantee investment tools to further the philanthropic goals of the organization. The fund has become a leader in the “impact investing” industry, successfully completing more than 70 investments across a variety of sectors and asset classes. The 12-person investment team is seeking an Associate-level individual to further grow the investment portfolio by collaborating with teammates and foundation colleagues in thesis formation, investment execution and investment management activities.
Representative Past Investments From The Fund, Include
The individual will be a generalist, working across a number of the foundation’s strategic priority areas which include programs in global health, global development and US education. Investments are made in support of the charitable impact theses of the strategy teams, which employ technical experts from around the world.
-
- $11 million Series A preferred equity investment in bKash, Ltd. , the largest mobile payments platform in Bangladesh serving more than 30 million customers and transacting currency volumes representing more than 15% of Bangladesh’s GDP. To date, almost four million accounts are registered to active users living under $2/day; a third of whom are women living under $2/day;
- $52 million Series B preferred equity investment in CureVac GmbH , a leading mRNA biotechnology company developing vaccines against cancer and infectious disease;
- $10 million Series E preferred equity investment in Halodoc , a leading Indonesian online-to-offline health delivery platform leveraging mobile technology to improve primary healthcare outcomes;
- $10 million senior secured loan to Civic Builders , a non-profit charter school facilities developer, to support expansion of its operations from New York/New Jersey to Rhode Island;
- $120 million volume guarantee to Bayer AG and Merck & Co. Inc. , which ensured a market for the companies’ implantable contraceptive products in exchange for a commitment by the drug manufacturers to increase their production and lower their prices in the developing world; and
- $5 million investment in the publicly-traded equity of Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , a biotechnology company with a novel boron-chemistry drug development platform that was acquired by Pfizer Inc. in June 2016.
Investments from the fund are structured as “program-related investments,” which is a defined term in the US Internal Revenue Code that governs charitable investments made by a private foundation.
It is expected that the Associate will focus on the following responsibilities:
-
- Participate on deal teams that include program technical experts, legal and investment colleagues to execute new investments, including: helping to form the investment thesis, performing initial evaluation, participating in shaping conversations with company, determining investment structuring, leading the due diligence process and financial modeling, and negotiating definitive legal documentation.
- Present investments to the foundation’s Investment Committee.
- Manage and monitor portfolio investments and facilitate interactions between investees, program teams and the foundation’s Investment Committee with regards to strategic, financial and legal opportunities/issues.
- Research and evaluate investment strategies and specific companies/investment opportunities as part of program strategy development as well as those arising from relationships with existing investees and co-investors.
We anticipate that the successful candidate will be an Analyst or Associate from a venture capital, growth equity, leveraged buy-out fund or investment bank with experience in deal sourcing, execution and company engagement and a deep interest in principal investing and belief in the foundation’s mission to drive innovative social impact. Minimum two-years of applicable experience is required.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people – especially those with the fewest resources – have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.
With an endowment of over $46 billion and total grant payments of over $50 billion, including $5.0 billion in 2018, the Gates Foundation is the world’s largest private foundation. The Foundation operates through five key divisions: Global Development, Global Health, Global Growth & Opportunity, Global Policy & Advocacy and the United States Division (focusing on US education and poverty reduction).
The employee transfer policy applies to internal backfill positions. An employee may apply for an open position after at least 12 months in their current position. If you meet this requirement and wish to pursue a backfill opportunity, you are required to have a conversation with your manager to confirm their support before you apply. In rare cases, the requirement of a minimum of 12 months in a position may be waived if a transfer is critical to the foundation’s goals and is approved by the current manager and their HR Consultant (HR Business Partner or Generalist).
All backfill positions are posted as LTE roles. With current manager support, if selected for the role, FTEs will retain their FTE status during the backfill assignment. Managers will have the option of backfilling for the individual moving to the interim position for a similar duration via the same hiring channels and options as this position. However, current managers may be unwilling or unable to hold headcount for the duration of an interim assignment and may deny the employee’s request. In such cases, the employee may apply for the open LTE position, but if selected, would effectively be resigning as an FTE and would be hired as an LTE for the duration of the interim assignment. As an LTE, employment with the foundation is expected to end at the end of the assignment, and the employee would not be eligible for severance.”
As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of our employment practices.
If interested, please apply here.
